* The first three quarters are excellent. The last quarter is too long but still good; audiences don’t need to be hit over the head with symbolism. We laughed, though not always at the parts that the rest of the theater laughed at. A few times I was the only person laughing.
* Birdman is among other things functional review of the Transformers series; Birdman is not merely conceptual art, as Transformers 4 may be.
* I didn’t feel stupid watching it.
* What might the camera work signify? To most it will be brilliant or hateful, but it is at least distinctive, and distinctive in a “that must have been very hard to do” way.
* Theater folk are fucked up, but we already know that, don’t we? From the works of Michael Tolkin, among others.
* This is the kind of movie about which movie people like to say, “It’s the kind of movie that doesn’t get made anymore.” See also point #3, above. Good movies are harder to find but still get made.
* Birdman is different than Gone Girl and yet both are absorbing.
* The rants are winners.
The Story's Story 
Although Ed Norton was great and it’s fun to see Michael Keaton (check out his first big role in the hilarious early 80s “Night Shift”, I didn’t buy into the fantasy completely. I also didn’t the very sophomoric symbolism and telegraphing of things to come. Re the stylized camerawork, it was impressive and oppressive at the same time. See Orson Wells last Hollywood film “Touch of Evil”, if you like long tracking shots (the restored 1998 version, not the original studio version).
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